στωϊκός

Forms

στωϊκός (stōïkós) m (feminine στωϊκή, neuter στωϊκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek στοά (stoá, “colonnade, porch”) + -ικός (-ikós), so it first meant “of the porch”.^[1][2][3] The name of the school comes from the Painted Porch, the Ποικίλη (Poikílē) Stoa at Athens, where its founder Zeno taught.^[2][4][5] BDAG notes that the spelling Στωϊκός is the more correct, though the form Στοϊκός, found in the New Testament, need not be the later one.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears in the 1st century BC, in Philodemus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who speaks of the leaders of the Stoic school.^[2][6] Babiniotis dates the plural Στωϊκοί, the collective name of the school's philosophers, from the 2nd century BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the 1st century BC on the word is used of the Stoic school and its members: Strabo, Philo and Diogenes Laertius use it, and in the Acts of the Apostles Paul meets Epicurean and Stoic philosophers at Athens.^[2][6][7][8] Used as a noun, the feminine ἡ Στωϊκή meant the Stoic school itself.^[2]

It passed into Latin as stoicus, the source of English stoic in the late 14th century; the general sense of a person who represses feeling came later.^[4] Modern Greek στωικός (stoikós) is a learned word: it refers to the school of Zeno and, by a sense taken from French stoïque, to calm and patient endurance.^[9][5]

Timeline

• 1st century BC – Philodemus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus use it of the Stoic school.^[2][6]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo and Philo use it.^[2][8]
• 1st century AD – The Acts of the Apostles mentions the Stoic philosophers whom Paul met at Athens.^[2][6]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian and Galen use it of the Stoics.^[8]
• 3rd century AD – Diogenes Laertius uses it in his lives of the philosophers.^[2][6]
• Late 14th century – English borrows stoic from Latin stoicus.^[4]
• Modern Greek – The learned στωικός (stoikós) means Stoic and calmly enduring.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a colonnade or porch.^[2][1]
2. Stoic, of the school of Zeno; as a noun, οἱ Στωϊκοί, the Stoics, and ἡ Στωϊκή, the Stoic school.^[2][10][7]

Related words

• στοά (stoá)
• Latin stoicus
• English stoic

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Μανδουλίδης, Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της αρχαίας ελληνικής
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b c d e f Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
7. ^ a b Woordenboek Grieks/Nederlands (2012–), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, https://woordenboekgrieks.nl
8. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli